We just released a fresh new activeCollab hack – Latest Comments First.

This acHack allows you to see comments in reverse chronological order (latest first) for discussions, tickets, pages and files. It ensures comment numbering and permalinks work. We have also included an administration panel to enable this hack only for selective modules.

We have pages full of comments on some discussions and tickets. This hack will free us from the trouble of navigating to the last page to find the most recent (hence most important) comments. We hope it helps you as well.

It’s only $15 and you get one year upgrades free.

Learn More – Buy Now

You may also want to learn about our other acHacks or acGarage (acGarage subscribers get all acHacks free, plus one year expert managed upgrades for activeCollab and other modules)

Got feedback? Have an idea? Feel free to post a comment!

Ho ho ho! The latest release of Reports Module – version 1.6 – is now available for instant download. If you are an existing customer, download it using the link in your original purchase confirmation email. If you have not yet purchased it, and want to get insightful reports on your projects, people and companies, click here and buy it today.

So, What’s New?

A whole lot. Almost everything actually! We rewrote the whole system. Here’s a summary of what’s changed.

Reporting engine revamp

Reports now include checklists, tasks, milestones and tickets. Daily snapshots have higher accuracy and are in line with activeCollab’s access privilege system. The core reporting engine is robust and well tested.

Person Reports Card

Detailed People reports added

You can now keep track of your team’s activities. See detailed statistics about work activity, project assignments and compare people using the Activity Score. Assignment chart shows you items assigned to a person across projects while Hours chart shows the actual hours spent across assigned projects. You can filter people by name, role and company as well as see performance in given date range.

Company Reports added – including overview of projects for that company

Another major addition is Company Reports. You can now see project status summary for all projects of a company on one screen. Filter to see only Active Projects or All Projects.

Ability to send a reminder from within Reports module

Reporting without the ability to take action has limited use. You can now send a reminder / followup / appreciation right from Reports module. Appropriate person will automatically appear in the To field, and you can add any other user using intelligent auto complete system. You can do use this quick action system from all reports – Projects, People and Companies.

Printing improved significantly

Printing now works much better, and works for all three reporting screens. We have even included a summary at top.

Company Usage Stats

System usage statistics as part of company reports

There is no way to find out how many total, open and closed tickets you have in activeCollab. No way to find out disk space usage or number of users either. System usage statistics – available under Companies Reports – provide you detailed usage statistics about your activeCollab system. You can narrow down by client companies to see their usage patterns too.

Project status summary added to Project Reports, including forecast

Get a summary of project’s progress at a glance with the Project Status summary panel. You can see % completion, leader, group, next milestone and a pie chart indicating progress. Hovering over gives you additional details. Project’s Velocity (speed of completing items) is highlighted. And we have even added a forecast date for project completion. It studies the last few weeks’ items – opened, closed, reopened, added – and predicts a completion date.

HTTPS support

Reports module now works well over HTTPS too! Thanks to everyone’s patience on this!

Revamped interface

We are proud of user interface redesign in this release! We spent numerous hours getting the details right. We hope you will appreciate it.

Permissions and configuration for Reports from AC Admin section

You no longer need to edit PHP files to change settings. You don’t even need to go to System Roles to give permissions to view Reports. We have added a Reports Configuration option in activeCollab administration screen. You can configure permissions, date format, weights to use in activity scores and other settings from there.

Fine grained access control – rights inherited from activeCollab

Reports module now will only include those projects, companies and users that are visible to the currently logged in user. It will show reports according to access rights of current user. You can now rest assured that users won’t get access to any unauthorized information. Rights are inherited from activeCollab and you can also set permissions for the three types of reports from Reports module configuration screen in activeCollab administration section.

Possibly a hundred other small improvements!

There are many other enhancements! Lots of tweaks to make your reporting easier, faster and more productive for you. We have paid attention to the details so that you can focus on taking decisions based on these reports.

Wow, that’s a lot! Is there a demo?

We don’t have a live demo, but invite you to our short introduction video on Reports Module. It will show you all types of reports available and how you can use them. You can also see some screenshots from documentation page.

Looks good. I want to get insights on my projects too!

Sure. Go ahead, click here to purchase Reports module ($69) and download it instantly. Installation instructions are included in your download.

You can learn more about Reports Module here.

Learn More – View Demo Video – Buy Now ($69)

Thank you Santa!

Thank you Santa for this wonderful Christmas gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you from Apps Magnet team!

(Santa Clause photo by Matti Mattila)

Reports module version 1.6 is live!

Price is $69. And it’s worth much more!

If you are an existing customer, you can download the latest version using the same download link as you got in the original purchase email.

More updates and demo video coming soon.

I set up the about to be released version of Reports module for activeCollab on our services company‘s server. During all these months of development, I’ve been testing it with small amount of real + test data. And I was zapped when I tested it with real big data today.

System Usage Statistics

Reports module tells we I have 41 active projects now, and have logged close to 22,000 hours of work on those projects. We have tons of work items completed, 2GB worth of files, and we are going strong.

And when I looked at the overall project summary, it told me we are 91% done, yet will never finish our projects. We have logged close to 4000 hours over the last 3 months and have items that are due for more than 290 days.

Summary - All Projects

And if that was not enough, we are closing work only at a rate of 12 items per week.

Few!

I planned to spend about 10 minutes reviewing the reports since I just wanted to test before wrapping up the build. But I spent well over half an hour – with occasional “wow’s” and “aha’s”, and “damn’s” in between.I think I am loving it.

Here are some other revelations / insights:

• Lot of team members use the system to just log hours (since it’s mandatory to log hours)
• Some tell me they will log hours, but never do! I could actually send them a reminder right from the Reports module.
• We don’t use the estimates feature of Planning module. Most items are not estimated.
• It’s actually good to have “Never” as the forecast date! It means my team has enough work  for a while 😉
• Most of the clients are involved only in posting comments on discussions. May be we can get them more involved on features / bugs.
• We have many old clients in the system who are no longer active. May be it’s time to check how they are doing and if they have more work for us 😉

My final reaction: this is deadly. This version of Reports module is just too dangerous. It’s sizzling hot. It must be handled with care.

Take care!

37Signals rolled out 37Signals ID – a unified, single sign on system for all their products recently. The feature invited a lot of heated arguments, but promises interest integration opportunities.

Transition to the new system was very smooth. A page asking you to select a new username, easy automated checking of usernames and useful suggestions about available usernames, and a one click, quick submission. The email notification too is well designed just like all other 37Signals products.

I was expecting we will have to do some changes on PlannerX for the new system to work. I was gladly surprised that we did not! You can continue using PlannerX with the new Basecamp username / password (the old ones won’t work, obviously). You don’t have to make any change to PlannerX!

Smooth!

Warm welcome to all activeCollab Giveaway winners (and participants!)

All winners may have received their discount codes from activeCollab team via a direct message on Twitter. Here’s how you can use those discount codes.

Redeeming Apps Magnet Discount Code

1. You should have received a special secure URL to claim the prize you won. The URL will look like

   https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart&i=207231&cl=49669&ejc=2

2. Along with that, you should have also received a discount code. A few alphabets in the beginning and 4 digits at the end.
3. Open the E-Junkie purchase URL in a web browser.
4. Enter the discount code in “Discount Code” field. Click “Update Cart”.
   

   Enter the discount code

5. The discount should be applied and the cart total will change.
6. Click on “Checkout” and complete the process.
   

   Checkout once discount is applied

7. At the end of the process, you will get a link to download the module (Planning / Reports / Housekeeping) or to complete your sign up for acGarage. Follow the link.
8. You will also receive an email notification about the product.
9. Each module contains installation instructions. Follow them to get started.

Note that the discount code can be used only once, and will expire on March 30th, 2010.

If you have any questions, post them on our Community Support Forums.

Once again, congratulations! We hope you will enjoy using the products as much we do.

Apps Magnet has partnered with activeCollab in their Giveaway. You can now win Apps Magnet products just by tweeting a simple message.

Win activeCollab and much more.
Find out how: http://bit.ly/acgiveaway

We are giving away

• One of five Planning Module licenses
• One of five Reports Module licenses
• One of twenty Housekeeping Module licenses
• One of fifty 20% off on acGarage subscriptions

Apart from our products, you can also win:

• One of five activeCollab Corporate licenses
• One of five activeCollab Small Biz licenses
• One of fifty 20% discount coupons for any of the activeCollab editions or for an additional service (Upgrade and Support plan, Upgrade and Support Credit, 30 day Hosted Demo)

We felt the activeCollab giveaway was more for people who are not yet using it. We wanted to celebrate activeCollab and current users – so we decided to pitch in with our products. Apps Magnet products add missing features to activeCollab and make your life easier. So if you are an existing activeCollab user, this is your chance to try your luck and win!

It’s easy to participate

All you have to do is tweet a simple message. Only one tweet per account will be counted and the giveaway ends 8th December.

Tweet now for your chance to win

All the best!

Read more about the giveaway on activeCollab’s website.

(Image courtesy mysza)